the girls have lice...eww

[lindsayfawn]

So I'm sitting on the bed and I grab willow to give her a few kisses when I see on her side it looks like these brown specs on her fur. She is absoultly covered in these bugs! WTF! I'm pretty sure it must be mites? Because they didn't jump when I was easily able to take a few off her fur. I checked the other girls and found them on Mischa and Raina so I'm guessing the other three have them as well.
How do they even get mites? Or Maybe willow had them from when I first got her and Alice. I've noticed that willow and Raina had some little scabs but I thought it might have been from where they were fighting a little. Do I have to get stuff from the vet to get rid of these nasty things or can I get something from a pet supply store or walmart?
Poor girls..it's weird though becuase they haven't been really itching excesively from what I could tell. *sighs* I feel bad that I didn't see them sooner.

 

[Willow Bean]

If you can see them they are more than likely lice, not mites... Don't worry, though, they are species specific and VERY easy to kill off. You need to get Ivermectin from your vet, wash everything, change and wash fabric bedding daily and put all litter and food into the freezer to kill off the buggies.

What kind of litter do you use? CareFresh carries bugs very, very often... that's how we got lice >.< Don't worry, it isn't your fault and they often show up very quickly and suddenly with no real chance to notice "hey, I think I may have seen 1 bug" and then, 3 weeks later you have an infestation... it's usually very fast, but so is getting rid of them ^_^

 

[Willow Bean]

You can also get Ivermectin past stuff from a feed and tackle store in the form of a horse wormer or something like that... Someone else can tell you more about that...

 

[lilspaz68]

or Revolution from your vet, which is easiest to use and easiest on your rat.

Yeah it sounds like lice. I got mine from cheap infected aspen.

 

[Melissa's ZOO]

I too just had a lice break out, used Advantage from the vet. It came from the cheap aspen bedding I bought. I don't care how broke I am next time I will dig up change from the couch and car to get my yesterday's news.

 

[lindsayfawn]

I used to use aspen but they have been on fleece ever since I got the FN so that's been a few months now. I have yesterdays news in their litter. I put their fleece that wasn't being used in the freezer last night. I'll take that out and put their food in there, I have their lab blocks in a plastic container.
Gross looking little creatures *shudders* I've been crawling all night lol little bugs freak me out lol
So rat lice don't jump then? or were they in a different stage? "cause they were really easy to take off the fur and they were kinda clear but had a little brown spot too which is how I noticed them.
I'm goin to call the vet now and hopefully get the stuff today.

 

[lilspaz68]

I used to use aspen but they have been on fleece ever since I got the FN so that's been a few months now. I have yesterdays news in their litter. I put their fleece that wasn't being used in the freezer last night. I'll take that out and put their food in there, I have their lab blocks in a plastic container.
Gross looking little creatures *shudders* I've been crawling all night lol little bugs freak me out lol
So rat lice don't jump then? or were they in a different stage? "cause they were really easy to take off the fur and they were kinda clear but had a little brown spot too which is how I noticed them.
I'm goin to call the vet now and hopefully get the stuff today.

Are they slow, longish things? The brown spot is the blood meal. LOL
No jumping for ratlice.

 

[lindsayfawn]

yeah they're slow and gross looking and have wiggly legs *shudders*. I have an appointment for them on wednesday, should be interesting taking all 6 of them in. Do I need to throw out any of their wood things or is that just for mites that you have to do that?
Will be nice to be out of this friggin apt 'cause I'm sure the carpet probably has some of those buggers in them *shudders* gross, and the vaccum he has sucks, spits out more dirty then it sucks up. So I use my hand held dust buster thing in my room and that takes forever!
I was going to make an appointment with the vet anyways this week 'cuase Alice has been sounding really noisy breathing when she sleeps much like templeton was, so hopefully I can get her some baytril to help clear that up. The lice probably doesn't help.
I'm surprised though that the doc didn't see any when I had taken Willow in a little while ago so maybe she didn't have any then? I dunno. I'm seeing Dr. Foreman this time I think

 

[dubchick]

well.... if willow had brought lice.. it would certainly make sence as to why she has been acting weird since we got her.. (pregnancy scair/ uti/ not moving) ... its weird we didnt see anything tho... but its possible they stayed to the darker fur parts?? and may be breeding more due to spring (i dont know if that even would have anything to do with it) ... i remember when mom's cat had fleas ... she just gradually started acting "off".. and since she was an indoor cat.. we never suspected fleas..just thought she was acting funny cause it was summer and it was hot.. then one day i was kinda thinking what if ..... and was checking her.. and a flea jumped on my neck.. i was like.. :gaah: :rant: anic: ... she was completely infested.. it was weird that we hadnt seen any on her until then... took a lot of work to get rid of them... but it worked....
hope the girls dont have it too bad or for too long.. wish i was there to help you out linds...

 

[lindsayfawn]

well the girls have lice and I'm sure Willow brought it in from that damn pet store grrrr, stupid pet store. so they're getting treated with revolution and then I have to go in two weeks to get them looked at again to see if they still have any. poor willow is just covered. there was another girl in there from my class and her rats were getting treated for lice as well from that same pet store. I wonder If I should let the SPCA here know about that?